End of an era.........................

Handed in my last degree module this morning.........

This wasVERY fraught as hand in had changed to 10 from 10.30 and that extra half an hour mattered because,despite setting off at 8, I got stuck behind a road making machine from  a couple of miles on the Darlington side of Stockton.all round Stockton/Norton to the A19 THEN there was a major road delay outside of Hartlepool (so took a turn off after a stressed quarter of an hours crawl to spend ages going round Dalton Piercy/countryside basically LOST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Never mind made it in plenty of time in the end...thank goodness I had followed the time management advice I used to give my students!!!!

Now for......cleaning the house....doing the garden.....washing the car.....walking the dog and having FUN !!!!!!!!!!!! :-) :-) :-)

First shall catch up on last few days of lost sleep, then will put up pics of final boards and what I decided were my best designs.

Evaluation-how could it take so long to do so little....

Took all day to produce the dreaded module evaluation...So evaluation stopped creation again ...as it has in the past during this module, unfortunately....roll on the end of the course so I never have to do another WRITTEN evaluation  ever again (I hope!!!)............................wooooooooooo.  Definitely the worst part of the course.

Lazy Daisy!!!!!

Another of my last design developments to be mounted first!!!

I have a small collection of old lacquerware (papier mache in the style of) boxes.  I was given the first by my Grandmother, many years ago and I loved the daisies, forget-me knots and butterfly printed on the lid. As I had obtained a few more piece of genuine old oriental lacquerware over the years , as part of my oriental interior decoration, I wanted to include a lacquer look card with a modern twist. Hopefully I have managed...........?!!!

The daisy is very like the originals but its leaves are mor feathery and so even more of a cutting out night mare.  I found it growing wild, i.e. a weed (!!!!), where I walk my dog  and could not believe my luck.  I drew it then, last Autumn and it's been waiting until now to be developed into what I imagined all those months ago.

I had printed the image onto a yellowish background which I cut away for these designs.  However, I really liked the yellow with black so I developed another set of designs to show this colourway. As lazy daisy was one of the easiest and so one of the first embroidery stitches I learnt as a youngster (such a mispent youth ;-)) and the image is like a daisy I decided to do a simple stitch with a simple image and simple plant (although  a favourite childrens hymn does say 'daisies are our silver.............that misspent youth again!!!)

'and the last shall come first'!!!

How true this is, have finally committed work to a board (although could still be deselected!) and have mounted the very last, simplest and most Chinese of my designs Kung hei Fat Choi.  It is perfect ...garish red and gold not me at all, my least favoutite but the very best choice for a Chinese New Year card/gift/party! It so reminds me of  my 'home' in Hong Kong,with firecrackers, joss sticks, lai see envelopes full of money and red and gold everywhere!!!!!

P.S. No mounts this time...much better

P.S.S. (clash of cultures here!) and wouldn't it be wonderful if  one day 'the meek shall inherit the earth' too............

I shall let you all in on my secret......

I am not a tidy worker!!!!!!!!!!! As Coleen was brave enough to show the frenzied state of her amazing STUDIO I thought I would let you see my little kitchen workspace as it has been for most of the year and especially these last few weeks!!!!



As you can see every surface is covered!!!. I 'cook'....well open packets in a very small space next to my almost unused cooker!!! Well actually it is used but as another very useful suface as it is next to the plugs so I can emboss etc.. When things really heat up and a deadline is fast approaching...LIKE NOW ....SEVEN....DAYS AGHHHH....then every inch of floor is covered. ......and I look so organised at college!!!!!:-)

P.S. Another reason why I find working  at college hard!!!! I'd need half the studio and a dedicated printer and plug to do my card design work!

Pink and BLUE cherry blossom!!!!

I managed to beg a piece of beautiful cherry blossom from my neighbours a few weeks ago and did a drawing ready for development.

Well , it was now or never!! Knowing I had this image I showed total 'flexibility and openess to new ideas' (well colourways) when I fell in love with some  pink papers in yet another very expensive visit to Hobbycraft on Wednesday (their profits and Staples are going to take a plunge when this modul,e finishes!!!). I just had to produce the ideas they gave me for my blossom branch.  So here they are, although probably to remain as development as they compliment my Minor Project and its vintage/pastel shades. However, after I had got all that girly pinkness out of my system I got back to the real world and ,using my Chinese carpets colours as an inspiration produced an oriental blossom card an paper in my FMP colourway of Blue and yellow/old gold.

It's amazing how different the same image looks in another colour combination.  this card matches my home (which has provided most of my inspiration and primary resources) PERFECTLY :-) I coloured it all by hand, a combination of watercolour pencil and emulsion paint-a very bespoke paper!

Apologies for the photos they don't seem to be as good as some of my others, not sure why......

Work stops blogging!!!!

Have been so wrapped up in developing/experimenting/producing designs and outcomes that I have totally forgotten to record the processes for my blog...many apologies.  I am at that brilliant stage where ideas come thick and fast and I am so carried along on a huge raft of enthusiasm and mental concentration on the task in hand that I forget what time of day it is (even what the day itself is!)or when to eat!!!

I have been applying all sorts of techniques to my drawings and developments....so long in the planning but at last able to be used to make final products.

I am SOOOOOOOO looking forward to being able to do this all the time, when my degree finishes in a few weeks and I won't be continually held up/interupted by meetings, getting to and from college (all the boring but necessary stuff) etc.etc.

CREATE, CREATE, CREATE will be my mantra and its object will be what it has always been, since I started this blog.........................

to CREATE BEAUTIFUL IMAGERY! :-)